In industries, such as the railroad, for example, transporting machinery, supplies, and crews to limited access areas has been extremely difficult. Historically, there have generally been two methods for handling materials used for the railroad industry, such as rails, ties, other track material (“OTM”) and ballast in order to bring it to limited access areas. Some examples of OTM are spikes, tie plates, rail anchors, and bolts. The first transport method has been by rail car. This method requires a great deal of coordination and can result in major delays due to the availability of cars, engines and/or locomotives. Even under optimum conditions, this method is only cost-effective if a large number of cars and/or materials are needed at the same time in approximately the same location.
The second method of transporting machinery, supplies, and crews to limited access areas has been by stockpiling at the nearest road location and reloading onto specialized hy-rail trucks or transporting with a front-end loader. This option is more commonly used, yet requires an available stockpiling area and/or double loading of the material. This method also requires extra equipment for the second loading and ties up specialized equipment.
Additionally, moving heavy materials requires extra support to prevent the loading vehicle or railway car from tipping during the loading process. To prevent such tipping, A-frame apparatus with support legs have been attached to the loading vehicle or railcar. The support legs are released in a downward direction and planted firmly on a ground surface to absorb the load force. Unfortunately this process takes a substantial amount of time because the support legs need to be resituated each time the loading vehicle or railcar is moved. Specifically, any time that the loading or carrier vehicle or car is moved, the support legs must be drawn up into the A-frame and then re-deployed when the loading or carrier vehicle or rail car are repositioned.